California is in the middle of its fifth year in drought. Experts say it has been the worst the state has seen in 1,200 years.
Dwindling reservoirs, shrinking lakes, and dried-up farm fields dot the state's landscape — and despite some recent signs of recovery, the overall outlook is still ominously dry.
Across the state, reservoirs remain far below their capacity and, more importantly, far below their historical average. And California isn't alone. Last year, Dean Farrell of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill made a stunning interactive graphic showing the shrinking state of reservoirs across the western US. Still, California stands out, with its reservoirs at roughly 46% of their total capacity.
These images, taken by the USGS and NASA Landsat 7 and 8 satellites and collected by the online lake reference site Lakepedia, show what 10 California reservoirs looked like in September or October of 2001 ("before") and what each reservoir looked like in the same month of 2016 ("after").
Lake San Antonio: Before (Sept. 2001)
Lake San Antonio: After (Sept. 2016)
Together with Lake Nacimiento, Lake San Antonio is key to recharging the aquifers that provide water to Southern Monterey County. In January of this year, Lake San Antonio sat at just 3% of capacity, according to the Monterey Herald. Engineers call reservoirs that are this decimated "dead pools" because gravity can't draw any water from them at such low quantities.
Sources: Lakepedia; Monterey County Water Resources Agency Dam and Reservoir Daily Data 2016; Monterey County Water Resources Agency San Antonio Storage Chart 2014; Monterey Herald 2016
Lake Cachuma: Before
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